Love: Joyce Carol Oates and Raymond Carver
Love is a complex emotion. It may encourage a person to write poetry or it may drive him to the point of murder. With emotions ranging from extremely positive to completely negative, love has turned into a rather complicated subject of debate and thus we often find authors and poets asking the critical question, what really is love? The debate ranges from academic to anecdotal but love has occupied an important place in literature and that's exactly forms the crux of two short stories, 'Where are you going, Where have you been" and "What do we talk about when we talk about love?" by Joyce Carol Oates and Raymond Carver respectively. In Oates' story we come across a kind of love that is unspoken yet strong. Throughout the story, one feels as if the protagonist, Connie, is not close to her family and doesn't really care about them. "Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over. "She makes me want to throw up sometimes," she complained to her friends..." Connie couldn't bring herself to love her family in the traditional sense. She was more interested in living a life of complete freedom and less responsibility. Connie was a normal fifteen year old who considered herself pretty and cared a great
" But she is a courageous girl who truly cares about her family and decides to follow Arnold instead of risking the lives of others. ", Terri tells him that Ed loved her, "In his own way maybe, but he loved me. It is shown through courage that is exhibited when Connie realizes that she would have to put her life at stake to save her family. The man who is threatens to hurt her family member is called Arnold Friend and he had initially befriended Connie as a sign of his attraction for her. " He has been through good and bad kind of relationships and understands or at least tries to understand what really is love. " The story ends with Connie following Arnold. Mel, Nick, Terri and Laura discuss the topic endlessly only to realize that love is a socially constructed truth. In Carver's story, which is a more adult piece than Oates' story, we come across the mature kind of love that exists between men and women in a heterosexual relationship. "The best part of this story is that it raises questions about failed relationships. One person may consider jealousy a form of love but to someone else, it might only be sign of being imprisoned. Its meaning differs from person and person and experience to experience.
Common topics in this essay:
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,
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oates' story,
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exhibited connie,
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Acceptance Essays
